In an app likely to be pulled from the App Store in the very near future, HIddenApps promises to remove stock iOS apps like Newsstand and Weather from a user's home screen.

Update: As suspected, Apple has yanked HiddenApps from the App Store.

HiddenApps allows users to temporarily hide Apple's stock iOS apps, disable iAds and enter a Field Test mode that displays cellular reception strength in numerical form rather than signal bars.

When users run HiddenApps, they are met with a launch screen showing a basic list of the app's features, including "Hide Apps," "Disable all iAds," "iOS Diagnostics" and "Field Test" activation. Selecting "Hide Apps" shows a number of built-in titles that can be hidden, including Calendar, Stocks, Passbook, Compass, Maps and more.

When a user clicks on an app, like Maps, a pop-up window asks for permission to install the app "Poof." Choosing install will result in a failure message, and changes Maps into a darkened "Poof" icon. By deleting the icon, the Maps app is effectively hidden from view. Hidden apps can be reinstated by rebooting or respringing the device.

Due to its nature, the sneaky app is likely slipped by the App Store approval process and is expected to be pulled soon.

For the time being, HiddenApps is available as a free 5.4MB download from the App Store.

This App installs a custom profile on your iOS device. I would be very wary of installing it on devices with your personal data attached. This App will be pulled very quickly and for excellent reasons. SERIOUSLY, DO NOT INSTALL THIS APP!!

This App installs a custom profile on your iOS device. I would be very wary of installing it on devices with your personal data attached. This App will be pulled very quickly and for excellent reasons. SERIOUSLY, DO NOT INSTALL THIS APP!!

Didn't Apple throughly check out the app before allowing it on the app store?

"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example" Mark Twain"Just because something is deemed the law doesn't make it just" - SolipsismX

This App installs a custom profile on your iOS device. I would be very wary of installing it on devices with your personal data attached. This App will be pulled very quickly and for excellent reasons. SERIOUSLY, DO NOT INSTALL THIS APP!!

Didn't Apple throughly check out the app before allowing it on the app store?

There are some tricks that are sometimes used such as putting hidden functionality in the app that only reveals itself after a certain date, giving the app time to be approved before the hacking part kicks in. Apple can't look in the source code so the offending functionality is invisible until the designated time. I'm sure that Apple could check by setting the date forward on their checking device but I'm not sure they do that. With a name like HiddenApps it would probably be prudent to give it a more careful examination.

This App installs a custom profile on your iOS device. I would be very wary of installing it on devices with your personal data attached. This App will be pulled very quickly and for excellent reasons. SERIOUSLY, DO NOT INSTALL THIS APP!!

Basically GTR is saying it is worth being careful of an app designed to download something to your phone as t wasn't vetted and likely isn't going to play by Apple rules. So not warn you when it uploads your contacts etc to their server.

@dasanman69 Apple doesn't really check everything. They check for crashes and easily detectable defects, and they have humans who may, or may not, checkmore thoroughly.

Look at the list of apps that obviously disregard Apple's terms and conditions. I even found a bug in one of my apps years after pushing it to the Store, which by the way is irritating as a programming artist

Social Capitalist, dreamer and wise enough to know I'm never going to grow up anyway... so not trying anymore.

It makes a mockery of the review process that something so obvious a hack could get through. But then they can't properly review all apps because they don't have a policy of automatically disallowing insubstantial apps.

Other than the obvious things listed in the above link, the ability to install certificates is a huge security hole if you don't trust the source of the profile. If they install a bogus certificate, they could potentially perform a man-in-the-middle attack and intercept/tamper with secure communications from your phone (ie online banking). The certificate's only one step in the process though, they'd still have other work to do to attack successfully.

Moral of the story: never allow a profile to be installed on your device unless you really trust the source.

So it downloads and starts to install, and then it hangs. Now all it can do is restart the installation, eventually changing the app icon from dim to normal brightness, but keeping the installation bar on top of it. Can't open it, doesn't install, but it's there.

1. That's Apple's fault, and it should be embarrassing.

2. This PROVES that Cards (which STILL perpetually shows up as an update on my device but CANNOT be updated) does not require iOS 6 and was never originally going to require it, which is also embarrassing to Apple.